Electronic systems for musical input or musical performance often fail to simulate accurately the experience of playing a real musical instrument. For example, by attempting to simulate the manner in which a user interacts with a piano keyboard, systems often require the user to position their fingers in the shapes of piano chords. Such requirements create many problems. First, not all users know how to form piano chords. Second, users who do know how to form piano chords find it difficult to perform the chords on the systems, because the systems lack tactile stimulus, which guides the user's hands on a real piano. For example, on a real piano a user can feel the cracks between the keys and the varying height of the keys, but on an electronic system, no such textures exist. These problems lead to frustration and make the systems less useful, less enjoyable, and less popular. Therefore, a need exists for a system that strikes a balance between simulating a traditional musical instrument and providing an optimized user interface that allows effective musical input and performance.